Eddie Martinez

Eddie Martinez was born in Groton, Connecticut in 1977. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

A selection of solo exhibitions includes Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA (2017); Peres Projects, Berlin; Half Gallery, New York; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn; and ZieherSmith, New York. His work has been included in the group exhibitions New York Painting, Kunstmuseum Bonn (2015); Body Language, The Saatchi Gallery, London (2013–2014); New York Minute, Garage Centre For Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011); Not Quite Open for Business, The Hole, New York (2010); Draw, Museo de la Cuidad de México, Mexico City (2010); So Wrong, I’m Right, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2007); Mail Orders and Monsters, Deitch Projects, New York (2007); and Panic Room: Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, Deste Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens (2006).

Eddie Martinez creates expressive, large and entertaining works that draw on the historical canon of abstract painting and street culture. There is a joyful mash-up of references from Pablo Picasso to graffiti, Willem de Kooning, skateboard culture, Robert Rauschenberg, sport, Jean Michel Basquiat and takeaway pizza boxes. His works are lively and discursive combining coarse brushwork, recognisable tropes of contemporary life and shapes reminiscent of commercial logos. Martinez’s paintings incorporate bold contours through the combination of media such as oil, enamel and spray paint, and often include collaged found objects. This medley of references and painterly technique is perceivable in his sculptural works where textured oil paint, bronze, metal tubing, ropes and bottle tops collide in joyful amalgamated forms.